


A Thief of Hearts (Among Other Things...)

by within_a_dream



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-17
Updated: 2014-10-17
Packaged: 2018-02-21 11:53:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2467385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/within_a_dream/pseuds/within_a_dream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Marius gets hopelessly lost and has an unexpected encounter</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Thief of Hearts (Among Other Things...)

**Author's Note:**

> For claquessous. Thank you for putting this pairing into my head--I wouldn't have considered it myself, but I really enjoyed writing about this ship! (I tried to fit it into canon-era, but my plot needed a payphone to work.)

It was nearly midnight, Marius had been walking for hours, and he had no idea where he was. He’d only meant to follow the girl for a moment, long enough to return the handkerchief she’d dropped. He shouldn’t have followed her to begin with, but…he’d seen her in the park every day for months. He’d smiled at her, and she’d smiled back, but he’d never worked up the nerve to talk to her. And then one day, she hadn’t been there. Marius had gone back at the same time in the morning for thirty-seven days, hoping she would come back, before he resigned himself to the fact that he’d never see her again. He’d thought he’d lost her forever because he was too much of a coward to speak to her. He didn’t even know her _name_.

He almost hadn’t recognized her when he ran into her today. She certainly hadn’t recognized him. She hadn’t heard his mumbled apology, and she hadn’t heard him shouting after her when he realized she’d dropped something. Marius had chased after her, but somewhere along the way, he’d lost track of her. Which is how he’d ended up somewhere downtown, hopelessly lost, holding onto a threadbare handkerchief she probably wouldn’t even care that she’d lost. At least he’d used up his quota of misfortune for the day, Marius thought.

Immediately after that, it began to rain.

Marius ducked into the nearest building, and nearly choked on the smell of cigarettes and cheap beer. He pulled out his phone and began to dial Courfeyrac’s number, before he thought better of it.

_I know it’s past midnight, but could you come pick me up? I was following a girl I’ve never met, and then it started raining, and now I’m stuck at some bar called—_ he squinted at the sign— _Whitey’s_. Courfeyrac would never let him hear the end of it. He would just have to wait out the rain, and since he was stuck here, he might as well buy himself a drink.

\---

Two hours later, the rain had stopped and Marius still hadn’t figured out how to get home. Not that he’d made much of an effort, besides a few cursory searches on his phone. As it turned out there were a lot of bars named Whitey’s, none of which seemed to be anywhere near where he’d thought he was. He fully intended to ask for directions eventually, or maybe call Courfeyrac, but it couldn’t hurt to order one more drink and see if he remembered the way home, right?

He didn’t notice the man who sat down next to him until he began to speak right into Marius’s ear.

“Why so glum, chum?”

Marius hadn’t thought it would be possible to make something like that sound smooth, but somehow the man managed. “It’s been a rough day.”

He waved over the bartender. “Hey, Jack! Another beer for my sad friend. Put it on my tab.”

“Thank you,” Marius said, fumbling for his wallet. “But I can pay, really--”

“Don’t worry about it.” He slid closer to Marius, and the brush of their shoulders together really shouldn’t have been as exciting as it was. “You’re too cute to look so sad.”

He meant to answer with something witty, or flirtatious, or at the very least not completely idiotic, but somehow, he ended up saying, “My name is Marius.”

The man laughed. “I’m Montparnasse.”

Marius didn’t even manage a reply this time, too distracted by his sudden realization of what a beautiful brown Montparnasse’s eyes were. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he realized that he should probably be more concerned by what was happening, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

The bartender slid a bottle across the counter to them, and Montparnasse broke the silence by asking, “What’s the matter?” Marius fully intended to say nothing at all, but Montparnasse looked so concerned that he couldn’t help but talk.

“I’m trying to find a girl.” Marius must have had too much to drink already, because he found himself telling Montparnasse everything that had happened today. “And I don’t even know her name!” he finished, several bottles and at least half an hour later.

“That’s love for you,” Montparnasse said. “By tomorrow you won’t even remember her.”

Marius shook his head, looking up from his half-empty bottle at Montparnasse (who had moved closer to him since the conversation had started, and was now nearly close enough for their noses to touch.) “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget her.”

“I could help you forget.” The force of the kiss almost knocked Marius off of the bar stool. He leaned into it before he realized what was happening, although he couldn’t say he minded. This was much more enjoyable then he would have expected kissing a stranger in a bar to be. Not that he’d spent much time thinking about that particular scenario…

When Montparnasse pulled away, Marius let out a little whine. His hopes that it was at least inaudible were dashed when Montparnasse laughed.

“Meet me outside.”

Marius waited a while before following him out the side door. He wasn’t sure if he was relieved or disappointed when he saw that the alleyway was empty.

Definitely disappointed, he decided when Montparnasse seemed to appear out of nowhere to pin him against the wall with another fierce kiss. That was the last coherent thought he had for a while, as the feeling of teeth catching his lip between them and fingers slipping beneath his shirt knocked everything else out of his head.

“You’re adorable,” he whispered, nipping at Marius’s ear before beginning to kiss his neck. Marius managed a whimper in reply. The feeling of the rough brick scraping his back where his shirt had hitched up, and Montparnasse’s lips against his skin, and the fingers slipping under his waistband all blurred together. Marius bit his lips and prayed he wouldn’t have to face the embarrassment of coming in his pants after only ten minutes of kissing (or maybe it had been longer?)

Then Montparnasse slid his hand to grab Marius’s ass and pull them closer together, and oh, it was too late for that. He noticed, of course, and his laugh was equal parts arousing and infuriating.

“Nice meeting you,” he murmured, and walked away, leaving Marius to catch his breath and hope that he didn’t look _too_ disheveled. It took him a good while to compose himself enough to go back inside. He reached into his pocket, ready to try finding directions home one last time, when—oh, God.

\---

“When I went to bed tonight, I definitely wasn’t expecting to wake up to my roommate calling me collect from a payphone on the rough end of town.” Courfeyrac tapped his fingers against the steering wheel, frowning. “I didn’t even know they still _had_ payphones.”

“I’m sorry.” Marius hoped Courfeyrac didn’t see him carefully avoiding eye contact. “My phone is gone.”

“You couldn’t at least have paid for the call? I know you’re hard up, but it’s 25 cents—”

“My wallet’s gone, too.” When he’d called Courfeyrac, he hadn’t thought about the fact that he’d have to explain what had happened to him. Walking home was beginning to look like a much more feasible alternative.

“Did you get mugged? Do we need to call the police?”

“No, I…” Marius was certain his face was bright red by this point. “I met someone at the bar, and, well, I didn’t realize he’d taken my wallet until it was too late.”

“Oh my god, Marius. You just went home with some man you met at Whitey’s?”

“I didn’t go _anywhere_ with him! Well, unless you count into the alley as going somewhere…”

Marius regretted saying that as soon as the words left his mouth.

To his credit, Courfeyrac at least made an attempt to choke back his laughter. “Are you all right?” Marius had turned so far to avoid looking at Courfeyrac that by this point, he was looking out the passenger side window. A storefront caught his eye, and he squinted at their surroundings.

“Where are we going?”

“To the police station, Marius.” Courfeyrac’s tone was unnecessary, Marius thought. Just because he’d been robbed didn’t make him an idiot…who was he kidding? He wouldn’t blame

Courfeyrac if he never wanted to let him out of the house alone again.

“I’d really rather not.” Marius looked down at his disheveled clothes, and imagined explaining to a police officer how exactly he’d wound up in these circumstances. “Could we at least wait until I’ve cleaned up?”

Marius was still stubbornly looking out the window, but he could feel Courfeyrac’s eyes on him.

“We can go in tomorrow morning, but that’s not going to look any better.”

“What won’t look better?”

Courfeyrac gestured to his neck. “You’ve got a hickey, my friend.”

“Oh, god. I’m having lunch with my grandfather tomorrow!”

“Maybe you should have thought of that before you hooked up with a stranger in an alley.”

Marius began to say that they hadn’t hooked up, exactly, but his protests sounded weak even to him.

“I didn’t even know you were into men.”

All Marius could think to reply was, “Neither did I!”

\---

As it turned out, they didn’t have to report the robbery after all. When Marius woke up the next morning, he found his wallet balanced delicately on the railing, his phone next to it. There wasn’t a single dollar missing. In fact, the only thing that seemed to be different was one new text from a number that had been entered into Marius’s contacts as “Montparnasse:” _Call me ;)._

**Author's Note:**

> Contains some sexual activity under the influence of alcohol.


End file.
